Chapter 21
She-Ra emerged from the shimmering portal just outside of Brightmoon castle. Swift wind spread his wings immediately, upon exiting the gateway, and leapt into the air. The cool wind dried her tears on her face as she took to the sky. Her dull gaze absorbed the images below her. People were eying her soaring form with wonder, awe and hope. Like fire, word of her return spread unchecked through the masses, the very air seemed to vibrate with awe filled intensity. Below her She-Ra saw a Brightmoonian guardsman watching her, slack-jawed as she passed by. With a gentle pressure from her left knee Swift wind whirled in the air and landed at the side of the young soldier.
"Greetings. Take me to your princess and the troll king. I have heard they need to be healed and have come to lend what aid I can." She-Ra's voice seemed uninspired even to her own ears, but she couldn't seem to make herself care beyond the burning hole in her stomach. Funny, she thought detachedly, she had been under the impression that her heart was in her chest. The intense pain radiating throughout her body, however, spread forth from her guts.
"They-re in the tents of healing, just outside of Brightmoon's gates. They couldn't be moved too far because of the severity of their wounds. The queen sits with her daughter even now." The soldiers voice dropped to a hushed whisper, "She does not expect her to live out the night. Indeed, dawn approaches from the east, you are probably too late and have arrived only in time to watch our princess die."
"No. I will not accept that. Death has had too free a hand this night. It is time he pulled back his greedy paw and find himself sated. No more lives will be lost this moon." The soldier did not respond, but hope unfurled in his heart at the resolute tone in the champions voice.
"There!" He cried pointing to a large lavender tent erected fifteen yards away from the wreckage of the city gates. She-Ra landed Swift Wind and dismounted swiftly, leaving the soldier to do the same. She spared a brief glance at the lightening sky above. The dark cobalt hues of midnight were retreating, followed closely by the sister tones of emerald and aqua as crimson fingers stretched hungrily forth-ward over the horizon. A gentle blush of tangerine toyed with the tempest of tones, easing their way over the heavens and She-Ra knew, with the instinct born to a true champion, that the princess of Brightmoon would not live past the disappearance of Etheria's three moons. Without asking permission, knowing none would be needed, the golden goddess of goodness shoved aside the dim tent flap and moved toward the knot of pain and exhaustion huddled near the rear of the tent.
"She-Ra!" Angella cried, unable to get to her feet. She-Ra barely waved at her, her whole attention focused on the still, scarred form of her friend Glimmer and the unconscious form of the troll king on the floor near her cot. She-ra's questioning glance slid from the still form of Ahgo to the winged queen, in question. Angella answered the unspoken query, unable to keep the sorrow from her voice.
"We found him thus in the middle of the night. He left a trail of blood across the ground as if he wanted to be by her side." Angella shrugged, "he was too heavy for any of the guards to lift and his own people are staying out of sight." She-Ra nodded, kneeling at the troll kings side. When her hand touched his back she felt the cord of life he strung between himself and Glimmer. She was startled. His own life hung by the slimmest of threads and he willingly used it to bind Glimmer to the world of the living. Her cold heart, hardened by the pain of the past hours softened and the warm blush of compassion colored her spirit once again.
She would have to heal them both at the same time. She had never tried something like that before. Always before her healings had been one on one, and the pain was excruciating. But she knew to heal one would sacrifice the other as they were both too near death's door to last much longer. She-Ra welcomed the thought of the pain. Perhaps it would push her own far away from her. Death had stolen enough, gorged itself on the suffering of others. It would not have these two. It was time to see exactly what powers resided within Grayskulls champion.
She lay a hand upon Glimmers chest and the other on Ahgo's back. Closing her eyes she muttered the words which would summon forth her power. Her skin crawled as they slithered silkily over her lips.
"For the honor, of Grayskull. Let your wounds be healed!" The second the words escaped her the pain attacked her. She gasped in agony, unable to cry out as the pain of Glimmer's burns became her own. Her neck arched and hardened, veins bulging out from the tension as her human form took on enough agony to tear it asunder. Yet she held true to her purpose. The very air on her skin acted as a flagellant. She could feel blisters, swollen, full of sticky fluid, bursting to be popped and she could feel those that had popped, burning like a hundred tongues of angry flames in the breeze. Her body was alive with pain as if millions of hungry insects were crawling over her skin and devouring her live. Her back was on fire where Ahgo was injured. Nerve endings which had been ripped and damaged stung with blinding intensity. The pain was unlike anything she had ever known and She-Ra, princess of power, welcomed it into her warm body with all the ebullition of a lost lover. Their pain was a physical thing, it attempted to rend away her sanity as she took it as her own but it did not touch her heart.
The pain left her cold. She brutally thrust her psyche into the heart of the savage torment and began to concentrate on the wounds.
A dazzling shining gloriole of white light and energy engulfed the three forms as the power of Grayskull's chosen was poured into the bodies of the fallen. The ravening grasp of death was thrust forcefully far from the two prone forms as the power of a hero healed them. The Burns on the princess knit themselves together, new skin began to grow in place of the damaged. Scar tissue began to puff up over the more severe burns. The wound in Ahgo's back however was harder to heal. Matter had to be created from mere wishes for there was nothing existing to build upon and change. But after the bulk of Glimmer's wounds were healed and death no longer threatened, She-Ra focused her extraordinary abilities on healing the mortal wound on the troll king's back. Finally Ahgo breathed easily and She-Ra knew, both would live. She found herself suddenly overwhelmed with fatigue, but she didn't want to stop. Glimmer's scars needed to be healed. Ahgo stirred restlessly beneath her touch and She-Ra took her hand off him to direct all her energies on Brightmoons princess. The damage was healed but the physical flaws needed mending. The entire left half of Glimmers body was puckered with livid pink scar tissue. This would take much time to mend because of the sheer magnitude of area needed to be covered. Time she-Ra didn't have to give.
Her healing radiance shimmered off, once, twice, and the third time, it did not come back. She-Ra, lay unconscious, in a deep slumber on the floor beside the two heroic figures she had healed. Ahgo pushed himself up and saw his princess stir. He spared a brief, grateful glance with the heroine who had saved her and him before he stretched out a large, fat finger and stroked Glimmer's puffy, scarred cheek. In his eyes she was beautiful. The most beautiful female in existence. And she would live. She stirred. Opened her eyes. She saw his big hairy face grinning at her and she smiled. She stretched. She yawned.
"What are you so happy about, Lord Ahgo?" She asked, a hint of teasing in her voice. She slowly sat up and then gasped. "Mother! Mother what's wrong? Why are you weeping?" Glimmer scrambled off the bed, heedless of her torn and ragged clothing and wrapped her arms around her sobbing mother who seemed unable to speak. As Glimmer held her mother in her arms she glanced in askance at the troll king but he just smiled through a pool of his own tears and sat back on his haunches. He gently scooped up the slumbering She-Ra and placed her in the bed Glimmer had just vacated. Ahgo tried not to notice the creamy expanse of milky skin exposed on Glimmer's middle, or the smooth curve of her breast which peeked out from beneath her arm. The rosy whorls of the puckered scar tissue which appeared in patches all along her body did nothing to lessen her desirability in his eyes. Indeed they enhanced it. Her scars were a testament to her courage and her dedication to her people. She would one day make a truly great queen.
Glimmer noticed She-Ra's prone form and began to get an inkling of just how close to death she had been. All she could remember is the desperate rage which had caused her to summon power she had not known she possessed to destroy as much of the horde as she could. She remembered the power building. She remembered the wild exultant surge of excitement as it built inside her and then a moment of fear as she lost control of it. Then everything went dark.
Her mothers sobs seemed to heave from somewhere deep inside of her and then her arms reached up to clasp her daughter to her. Glimmer tried not to notice how tightly her mother clung to her neck and prayed that her vertebrae would not snap.
"Shhhh. Shhhhh. It's okay mother. I am well. I am unharmed. Please, don't cry anymore." Angella gazed up with a reverent awe at the animated face of her daughter which had moments ago been so ashen and near death.
"It is a miracle you live my daughter." Was all Angella could think to say. Glimmer wanted to smile but she could not. Not yet.
"Mother, is Brightmoon free? Have we broken the siege?" Angella stood, pulling her daughter to her feet.
"Come. Look, my daughter. Look upon our kingdom and your people." Angella led Glimmer to the exit of the tent. The two members of the ruling family stepped out of the dim and into the sun. All around them their were gasps of astonishment. A small buzz soon turned into a muted roar as the sight of the princess standing tall and fair as the moon at her mother's side, spread with unnatural swiftness over the countryside. People stopped what they were doing to simply stare at their queen and the princess. Others came running from the city to view the princess nobody believed would live stand proud and regal by their queen. Their was laughing and crying as strangers hugged one another in relief and young and old fell to their knees in wonder and joy. Glimmer didn't understand.
"Mother what's going on?" Her voice held a note of nervous tension and Angella laughed in jubilation.
"You, my daughter, have just given your people the greatest gift a ruler can give!" Her deep laughter rang out infusing the people with a joyful intensity as that sound had been absent for so long.
"But mother I did nothing." Glimmer stuttered in consternation.
"Oh not true. Not true, dear daughter. You gave them hope. You live. It is enough." Glimmer stared around her in bemusement. It seemed as if a dark cloud were lifting and everywhere light from the sun poured down with benevolent radiance. Glimmer didn't understand why everyone was so happy. The war was not won. Their allies were spread across the face of the planet. Some were unaccounted for. Onyx still rode with her honor guard and Hordak still held the upper hand in his bid for world domination. But all around her, her people were laughing. Their joy was contagious and she found herself smiling as well in spite of her misgivings. An endless line of people came forward to touch her hand to hold her close to weep on her feet. She was overwhelmed.
For the time being the horde had been driven back from her home. Brightmoon was under siege no longer and for this day at least Glimmer gave herself over to the joy of being alive. Laughing Gaily she whirled around and grasping her mothers hand raised it high to the sky. They were alive. They were Free. Her kingdom and her people had hope. For now, for today, it was enough.
She-Ra emerged from the shimmering portal just outside of Brightmoon castle. Swift wind spread his wings immediately, upon exiting the gateway, and leapt into the air. The cool wind dried her tears on her face as she took to the sky. Her dull gaze absorbed the images below her. People were eying her soaring form with wonder, awe and hope. Like fire, word of her return spread unchecked through the masses, the very air seemed to vibrate with awe filled intensity. Below her She-Ra saw a Brightmoonian guardsman watching her, slack-jawed as she passed by. With a gentle pressure from her left knee Swift wind whirled in the air and landed at the side of the young soldier.
"Greetings. Take me to your princess and the troll king. I have heard they need to be healed and have come to lend what aid I can." She-Ra's voice seemed uninspired even to her own ears, but she couldn't seem to make herself care beyond the burning hole in her stomach. Funny, she thought detachedly, she had been under the impression that her heart was in her chest. The intense pain radiating throughout her body, however, spread forth from her guts.
"They-re in the tents of healing, just outside of Brightmoon's gates. They couldn't be moved too far because of the severity of their wounds. The queen sits with her daughter even now." The soldiers voice dropped to a hushed whisper, "She does not expect her to live out the night. Indeed, dawn approaches from the east, you are probably too late and have arrived only in time to watch our princess die."
"No. I will not accept that. Death has had too free a hand this night. It is time he pulled back his greedy paw and find himself sated. No more lives will be lost this moon." The soldier did not respond, but hope unfurled in his heart at the resolute tone in the champions voice.
"There!" He cried pointing to a large lavender tent erected fifteen yards away from the wreckage of the city gates. She-Ra landed Swift Wind and dismounted swiftly, leaving the soldier to do the same. She spared a brief glance at the lightening sky above. The dark cobalt hues of midnight were retreating, followed closely by the sister tones of emerald and aqua as crimson fingers stretched hungrily forth-ward over the horizon. A gentle blush of tangerine toyed with the tempest of tones, easing their way over the heavens and She-Ra knew, with the instinct born to a true champion, that the princess of Brightmoon would not live past the disappearance of Etheria's three moons. Without asking permission, knowing none would be needed, the golden goddess of goodness shoved aside the dim tent flap and moved toward the knot of pain and exhaustion huddled near the rear of the tent.
"She-Ra!" Angella cried, unable to get to her feet. She-Ra barely waved at her, her whole attention focused on the still, scarred form of her friend Glimmer and the unconscious form of the troll king on the floor near her cot. She-ra's questioning glance slid from the still form of Ahgo to the winged queen, in question. Angella answered the unspoken query, unable to keep the sorrow from her voice.
"We found him thus in the middle of the night. He left a trail of blood across the ground as if he wanted to be by her side." Angella shrugged, "he was too heavy for any of the guards to lift and his own people are staying out of sight." She-Ra nodded, kneeling at the troll kings side. When her hand touched his back she felt the cord of life he strung between himself and Glimmer. She was startled. His own life hung by the slimmest of threads and he willingly used it to bind Glimmer to the world of the living. Her cold heart, hardened by the pain of the past hours softened and the warm blush of compassion colored her spirit once again.
She would have to heal them both at the same time. She had never tried something like that before. Always before her healings had been one on one, and the pain was excruciating. But she knew to heal one would sacrifice the other as they were both too near death's door to last much longer. She-Ra welcomed the thought of the pain. Perhaps it would push her own far away from her. Death had stolen enough, gorged itself on the suffering of others. It would not have these two. It was time to see exactly what powers resided within Grayskulls champion.
She lay a hand upon Glimmers chest and the other on Ahgo's back. Closing her eyes she muttered the words which would summon forth her power. Her skin crawled as they slithered silkily over her lips.
"For the honor, of Grayskull. Let your wounds be healed!" The second the words escaped her the pain attacked her. She gasped in agony, unable to cry out as the pain of Glimmer's burns became her own. Her neck arched and hardened, veins bulging out from the tension as her human form took on enough agony to tear it asunder. Yet she held true to her purpose. The very air on her skin acted as a flagellant. She could feel blisters, swollen, full of sticky fluid, bursting to be popped and she could feel those that had popped, burning like a hundred tongues of angry flames in the breeze. Her body was alive with pain as if millions of hungry insects were crawling over her skin and devouring her live. Her back was on fire where Ahgo was injured. Nerve endings which had been ripped and damaged stung with blinding intensity. The pain was unlike anything she had ever known and She-Ra, princess of power, welcomed it into her warm body with all the ebullition of a lost lover. Their pain was a physical thing, it attempted to rend away her sanity as she took it as her own but it did not touch her heart.
The pain left her cold. She brutally thrust her psyche into the heart of the savage torment and began to concentrate on the wounds.
A dazzling shining gloriole of white light and energy engulfed the three forms as the power of Grayskull's chosen was poured into the bodies of the fallen. The ravening grasp of death was thrust forcefully far from the two prone forms as the power of a hero healed them. The Burns on the princess knit themselves together, new skin began to grow in place of the damaged. Scar tissue began to puff up over the more severe burns. The wound in Ahgo's back however was harder to heal. Matter had to be created from mere wishes for there was nothing existing to build upon and change. But after the bulk of Glimmer's wounds were healed and death no longer threatened, She-Ra focused her extraordinary abilities on healing the mortal wound on the troll king's back. Finally Ahgo breathed easily and She-Ra knew, both would live. She found herself suddenly overwhelmed with fatigue, but she didn't want to stop. Glimmer's scars needed to be healed. Ahgo stirred restlessly beneath her touch and She-Ra took her hand off him to direct all her energies on Brightmoons princess. The damage was healed but the physical flaws needed mending. The entire left half of Glimmers body was puckered with livid pink scar tissue. This would take much time to mend because of the sheer magnitude of area needed to be covered. Time she-Ra didn't have to give.
Her healing radiance shimmered off, once, twice, and the third time, it did not come back. She-Ra, lay unconscious, in a deep slumber on the floor beside the two heroic figures she had healed. Ahgo pushed himself up and saw his princess stir. He spared a brief, grateful glance with the heroine who had saved her and him before he stretched out a large, fat finger and stroked Glimmer's puffy, scarred cheek. In his eyes she was beautiful. The most beautiful female in existence. And she would live. She stirred. Opened her eyes. She saw his big hairy face grinning at her and she smiled. She stretched. She yawned.
"What are you so happy about, Lord Ahgo?" She asked, a hint of teasing in her voice. She slowly sat up and then gasped. "Mother! Mother what's wrong? Why are you weeping?" Glimmer scrambled off the bed, heedless of her torn and ragged clothing and wrapped her arms around her sobbing mother who seemed unable to speak. As Glimmer held her mother in her arms she glanced in askance at the troll king but he just smiled through a pool of his own tears and sat back on his haunches. He gently scooped up the slumbering She-Ra and placed her in the bed Glimmer had just vacated. Ahgo tried not to notice the creamy expanse of milky skin exposed on Glimmer's middle, or the smooth curve of her breast which peeked out from beneath her arm. The rosy whorls of the puckered scar tissue which appeared in patches all along her body did nothing to lessen her desirability in his eyes. Indeed they enhanced it. Her scars were a testament to her courage and her dedication to her people. She would one day make a truly great queen.
Glimmer noticed She-Ra's prone form and began to get an inkling of just how close to death she had been. All she could remember is the desperate rage which had caused her to summon power she had not known she possessed to destroy as much of the horde as she could. She remembered the power building. She remembered the wild exultant surge of excitement as it built inside her and then a moment of fear as she lost control of it. Then everything went dark.
Her mothers sobs seemed to heave from somewhere deep inside of her and then her arms reached up to clasp her daughter to her. Glimmer tried not to notice how tightly her mother clung to her neck and prayed that her vertebrae would not snap.
"Shhhh. Shhhhh. It's okay mother. I am well. I am unharmed. Please, don't cry anymore." Angella gazed up with a reverent awe at the animated face of her daughter which had moments ago been so ashen and near death.
"It is a miracle you live my daughter." Was all Angella could think to say. Glimmer wanted to smile but she could not. Not yet.
"Mother, is Brightmoon free? Have we broken the siege?" Angella stood, pulling her daughter to her feet.
"Come. Look, my daughter. Look upon our kingdom and your people." Angella led Glimmer to the exit of the tent. The two members of the ruling family stepped out of the dim and into the sun. All around them their were gasps of astonishment. A small buzz soon turned into a muted roar as the sight of the princess standing tall and fair as the moon at her mother's side, spread with unnatural swiftness over the countryside. People stopped what they were doing to simply stare at their queen and the princess. Others came running from the city to view the princess nobody believed would live stand proud and regal by their queen. Their was laughing and crying as strangers hugged one another in relief and young and old fell to their knees in wonder and joy. Glimmer didn't understand.
"Mother what's going on?" Her voice held a note of nervous tension and Angella laughed in jubilation.
"You, my daughter, have just given your people the greatest gift a ruler can give!" Her deep laughter rang out infusing the people with a joyful intensity as that sound had been absent for so long.
"But mother I did nothing." Glimmer stuttered in consternation.
"Oh not true. Not true, dear daughter. You gave them hope. You live. It is enough." Glimmer stared around her in bemusement. It seemed as if a dark cloud were lifting and everywhere light from the sun poured down with benevolent radiance. Glimmer didn't understand why everyone was so happy. The war was not won. Their allies were spread across the face of the planet. Some were unaccounted for. Onyx still rode with her honor guard and Hordak still held the upper hand in his bid for world domination. But all around her, her people were laughing. Their joy was contagious and she found herself smiling as well in spite of her misgivings. An endless line of people came forward to touch her hand to hold her close to weep on her feet. She was overwhelmed.
For the time being the horde had been driven back from her home. Brightmoon was under siege no longer and for this day at least Glimmer gave herself over to the joy of being alive. Laughing Gaily she whirled around and grasping her mothers hand raised it high to the sky. They were alive. They were Free. Her kingdom and her people had hope. For now, for today, it was enough.